A cartoon pictured a man in a doctor's office receiving a physical examination. The doctor came out of his private office with a series of papers and a chart to give the patient the results of all the tests. These were the doctor's words:

"Well, I see no reason why you can't live a perfectly normal life as long as you don't try to enjoy it."

Then there's the story of a teenager who was overheard to say to a donkey out in the country, "Why, you must be a Christian. You have a long face like Grandpa."

All of that is to introduce the fact that the Christian walk, which we are talking about in this series of sermons, is a joyful walk. Let's forever be done with the notion of a mule-faced, pinch-faced, dark-clouded, droop-shouldered Christianity, whose adherents look as though they had been …